There is a little word in Matthew 14 that is easy to read right past.

Only.

Jesus had withdrawn to a deserted place, but the crowds followed Him. When evening came, the disciples looked at the thousands of people gathered around them and saw a very practical problem: these people needed to eat.

Their solution was reasonable.

“When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, ‘This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.’”

—Matthew 14:15, NKJV

But Jesus responded with something they weren’t expecting.

“But Jesus said to them, ‘They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.’”

—Matthew 14:16, NKJV

Imagine looking at thousands of hungry people and then looking at what you have available. The disciples did.

“And they said to Him, ‘We have here only five loaves and two fish.’”

—Matthew 14:17, NKJV

Only.

And they were right. Five loaves and two fish were not enough. There were more than five thousand people waiting to be fed. Matthew tells us there were about five thousand men, “besides women and children” (Matthew 14:21). Whatever calculation the disciples made, the answer would have been the same.

What they had was insufficient for what Jesus had told them to do.

But notice what Jesus didn’t say. He didn’t tell them they were underestimating themselves. He didn’t tell them to look harder for resources they didn’t realize they had. And He didn’t tell them that five loaves and two fish really were enough if they just had enough faith.

He simply said:

“He said, ‘Bring them here to Me.’”

—Matthew 14:18, NKJV

That changes everything.

The five loaves were never enough. Jesus was.

When We Look at What We Have

We have our own versions of “only.” Only so much time. Only so much strength. Only this ability or this opportunity. Only this small act of obedience. And sometimes our assessment is completely accurate. We really don’t have enough.

One danger in talking about passages like this is turning them into a message about discovering how powerful we are. Give God your little bit, we might say, and watch Him turn it into something extraordinary. But that’s not really where Matthew directs our attention.

The remarkable thing in this story isn’t the potential hidden inside five loaves and two fish.

It’s the Person holding them.

Jesus took what could never have met the need on its own, blessed and broke the loaves, gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the multitude.

“So they all ate and were filled, and they took up twelve baskets full of the fragments that remained.”

—Matthew 14:20, NKJV

They began with “only” and ended carrying baskets of what remained. Not because the disciples had miscalculated what they possessed, but because they had not yet accounted for what Christ could do with it.

“Bring Them Here to Me”

Maybe that’s the part of this passage we need to remember most. Jesus didn’t ask the disciples to produce what they didn’t have. He told them to bring Him what they did have.

There will be times when what God places before us seems larger than what we have available to give. We may not feel capable enough, strong enough, knowledgeable enough, or experienced enough. We may look at what is needed, then look at ourselves, and think, I only have this.

And sometimes that’s true.

But this passage reminds us that God is not dependent upon the abundance of human resources to accomplish His purposes. That doesn’t mean He has promised to multiply every small thing we give Him into something visibly spectacular. Matthew 14 isn’t a formula guaranteeing that every effort will produce an extraordinary result.

The miracle points us somewhere much better than that.

It points us to Jesus.

The disciples were looking at five loaves and two fish and seeing the impossibility of the situation before them. Jesus saw the same five loaves and two fish, the same hungry multitude, and the same enormous need. But their need was never greater than His ability to provide.

Don’t Despise the “Only”

Perhaps there is something in your life right now that feels painfully small—an opportunity that doesn’t seem significant, an ability that doesn’t seem impressive, a small amount of strength when you wish you had more, or an act of obedience that seems unlikely to make much difference.

You don’t have to pretend it is bigger than it is. The disciples didn’t.

“We have here only five loaves and two fish.”

—Matthew 14:17, NKJV

Jesus didn’t correct their assessment. He simply told them to bring what they had to Him.

There is humility in recognizing our limitations. But there is also faith in remembering that our limitations do not become His.

We don’t need to make our “only” impressive or convince ourselves that it is enough. We simply need to be faithful with what God has placed in our hands and trust the results to the One whose sufficiency has never depended upon ours.

Because sometimes five loaves really are just five loaves.

Until they are placed in the hands of Jesus.

If you’d like to explore more topics related to trusting God, following Christ, and living in light of biblical truth, visit the Christian Living section of Bible Threads® and continue following the thread.